Millions of web pages are available as a source of news content for users of the Internet. These web pages take many forms, including, for example, articles, blurbs, and web logs (“blogs”), among others. In one approach, news content is published by inserting it into a web page (e.g., coding it into a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) file), which can then be viewed using a web browser.
There are drawbacks, however, to this approach. Users who wish to see content from a variety of sources must typically visit many different web sites. In addition, if the user later wants to obtain the most current content from all the sources, they must visit all the different web sites again. This is very time consuming, especially if the user is interested in many different types of content and/or sources.
One possible solution is a software application that automatically visits a number of web sites, extracts and presents content directly to the user. In particular, “feeds” have been developed as a way to publish news content in a structured format that facilitates identification and analysis. A feed (also known as a “news feed” or “blog feed”) can contain items (e.g., news items), metadata about the articles (e.g., title, date, and author), and/or metadata about the feed itself (e.g., title, URL, and last-updated timestamp). Some feeds are described by Resource Description Framework (RDF) statements and/or encoded using eXtended Markup Language (XML) (such as, e.g., the XML syntax RDF/XML, RSS, Atom). These features of feeds make it easier for applications to automatically collect and evaluate news content for presentation to the user.
The term “syndication XML” refers to XML that has been developed for feeds, such as Atom and RSS (“Really Simple Syndication,” “Rich Site Summary,” or “RDF Site Summary”). Since the general structure of a feed is known, it is possible to identify the news content within it. Software applications have been developed that work with content published using syndication XML.
Applications and/or application handlers, commonly known as “feed viewers,” “feed readers,” or “feed aggregators,” are capable of reading the syndication XML and presenting it to the user. These applications, may be implemented as on-line services and many support “aggregation,” which enables a user to specify multiple feeds and integrate their content into a single feed.
In the context of an enterprise environment (e.g., a commercial, educational or governmental), it is desirable to provide personnel with particular content so that, for example, personnel are kept up to date on industry news, company news and/or current events generally. Some enterprises allow personnel within the enterprise to access feeds by allowing them to utilize web browsing resources (e.g., browser-enabled computers) owned by the enterprise, but problematically, the enterprises are often unable to manage the particular feeds accessed by personnel. In other enterprises, personnel do not have access to the Internet, and as a consequence, they are unable to access any content feeds at all.
Although present systems may be marginally functional, they are not sufficiently efficient or otherwise satisfactory. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.